Strasbourg slams Turkey over Armenia

The parliament of the European Union has added its voice to criticism of Turkey, over the mass killing of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire early last century.

In a resolution, the European Parliament called on Turkey to recognise publicly that the killings were genocide.

Turkey has already reacted angrily to a similar vote in the French Senate. The United States Congress withdrew a similar resolution after Turkey threatened diplomatic reprisals. Estimates of the number of Armenians killed range from six-hundred-thousand to one-and-a-half-million; Turkey says they were not victims of systematic slaughter but died in fighting as the Ottoman Empire broke up. The European Parliament's move comes as Turkey tries to overcome criticism of its human rights record and seek full EU membership.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service